The Y-Serve club, EMU’s longest-running student organization, plans opportunities over fall and spring breaks for students to volunteer in locations across the East Coast and the South. Over spring break this year, six EMU students traveled to Comer, Georgia, to work with , an intentional Christian community that offers hospitality to refugees and other immigrants. The staff of Jubilee Partners live alongside three to five families as they help them get settled in the United States. 

The community at Jubilee grows fruits and vegetables as a way to provide healthful food, care for the land, and work together outdoors. The six students who traveled there got to participate in this meaningful work. They helped mulch blueberry bushes, plant chestnut trees, dig a new path, and cut out invasive shrubs in the woods. 

Besides their volunteer work, the students explored the 260-acre property, with its fields, forest, river, and even a small waterfall. In the evenings, they played card games with some of the partners and volunteers who live at Jubilee.

Micah Mast, an EMU junior who served as the student leader of the group, chose to go on this trip because his family volunteered at Jubilee Partners for four months when he was only four years old. “I wanted to go back and help out,” Mast said. On the other hand, Ella Richer, a student chaplain in her first year of college, had never been to Georgia but wanted to visit an intentional community. 

Shawna Hurst, a first-year student who helped plan the recent Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship Conference at EMU, saw the trip as a way to meet others who focus on peace and justice. Hurst finds peace work “inspiring, fulfilling, and much needed.” The trip helped her learn more about what happens to refugees who end up in U.S. detention centers.

Erin Loker, a first-year student and Y-Serve leadership team member, said some of her highlights were getting to know the other students who went on the trip and hearing the stories of the people at Jubilee. Every weekday, the community gathers to eat lunch and share noontime devotions, which provided a good opportunity for the students to meet the people living there. Richer reported many interesting conversations with the residents about living in community, choosing to live simply, welcoming refugees, and giving generously.

A highlight for Mast was giving a presentation on how EMU students are pursuing peace and justice. The Jubilee community appreciated learning how students combine their desire for a better world with their faith through events like the Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship Conference and other work EMU Peace Fellowship has been doing.

For Loker, the trip taught her about hard work and simple living. Even though she had never planted trees before, the volunteer work was “a cool experience.”

 “People there shared a lot and lived minimalistic lives,” she said. “It helped me reflect on how much I have that I don’t really need and what’s important to me.”

EMU students Chris Erb, left, and Heidi Hershberger pass through Donalds, S.C., on their bike trip from Philadelphia to Comer, Ga.

��ݮ���� students Chris Erb and Heidi Hershberger passed through the Upstate Friday as part of a bike trip that is taking them from Pennsylvania to Georgia.

The two recently started their summer break from school this year by taking a four-day bicycle trip from the school in Harrisonburg, Va., to Philadelphia.

Both had signed up to be interns and volunteers for three months at Jubilee Partners in Comer, Ga., a Christian community that host refugees from war-torn countries such as some in Central America, the Middle East and Africa.

The two students decided to bike from Philadelphia to Comer.

“We didn’t want to drive. We wanted to do a bike trip,” Hershberger said Friday afternoon as the two traveled from Donalds to Due West.

Erb added, “We wanted to slow things down and meet people.”

The two had been riding for 12 days as of Friday and averaging about 70 miles each day, with their longest one-day ride having been 88 miles.

Erb tows a small bike trailer behind his bike with supplies the pair needs on the trip.

For most of the journey, the two have found places to camp for the night, except for a few times that they stopped in areas where their friends and family members lived. A few times total strangers met them and invited them to stay.

The two were on their way Friday to spend the night with some of Hershberger’s family members who live outside Due West before making the final leg of their trip to Comer, where they need to be by Monday.

Hershberger said she and Erb will be working with refugees from Burma to teach the group a bit about English, how to handle finances and American culture. The two also will be involved in cooking and child care.

“We’re not doing it for the money. We’ll only make $15 a week,” said Hershberger, a Georgia native, as she talked about how she had visited – but not worked at – Jubilee Partners last year.

She loved the people, commitment and lifestyle and wanted to help there this year, she said.

The friends said they won’t be able to bike back to Virginia because they wouldn’t finish up their work until the end of August, and they need to be back in time to resume college classes.

“(Erb’s) father is going to come down and visit. We’ll ride back with him,” Hershberger said.

EMU students reflect on the sunset at Lakewood Retreat, Brooksville, Fla., a program of Southeast Mennonite Conference

Four groups of EMU students spent their mid-semester break the first week of March doing service projects under the auspices of the Young People’s Christian Association (YPCA).

The students shared highlights of their experience in university chapel Wednesday, Mar. 12.

‘Volunteering is Rewarding’

Eleven EMU students worked at Lakewood Retreat, Brooksville, Fla., a program of Southeast Mennonite Conference, cleaning facilities and doing general cleanup work around the camping facility.

EMU student Alec Burkey prepares to do some heavy metal work in Florida on truck parts in disrepair. By the end of the group’s stay, Burkey had the truck up and running, saving the camp money in repair fees.

“Volunteering is rewarding – seeing hard work pay off, how much was accomplished in a short time and giving yourself to a worthy cause,” said Michael Charles, a junior from Lancaster, Pa.

Seven other students did manual labor for Jubilee Partners, an intentional Christian community in Comer, Ga., and related to local immigrants that the group ministers to.

“For me, this week was a time of seeing God in a different way through the people we met, through singing and other activities,” said Heidi Hershberger, a sophomore from Boyertown, Pa.

Repairing Katrina Homes With MDS

Mobile, Ala., was the destination for nine students, led by Nick Meyer and supported by Eldon R. Kurtz, physical plant director at EMU, and his wife Sharri. The group divided into three smaller work teams to repair homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina under the auspices of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS).

EMU student Kim Gross tackles some greenery during her stay in Florida.

“It was a great change of pace from studies,” said Nick Meyer, a senior from Harrisonburg, Va. “We did more than just home repair work, but grew spiritually through the experience.”

“Hearing stories from people who had experienced major loss made us thankful for all that we have,” he added. “We also had a lot of fun.”

‘God Taught Us a Lot’

Eight students traveled to Wilmington, Del., to assist in an after-school program run by Urban Promise. They cleaned classrooms and interacted with children from pre-K to junior high age in the inner-city program.

“God taught us a lot,” said Jessica (Jess) Sarriot, a first-year student from Jerusalem. “I learned to respect and appreciate what teachers do in relating to kids in a new way.”

In addition to the service teams’ ministry, the EMU Chamber Singers spent the mid-semester break giving programs of worship in music in nine locations in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

Twelve students, led by Philip J. (Jordan) Good and Hannah E. Yoder, will do construction and rehabilitative housing with Service With Appalachian People (SWAP) in Harlan, Ky.

Another group of 12, headed by Kendra R. Nissley and Felicia D. Wideman, will be involved at Jubilee Partners in Comer, Ga. This farm-based intentional community provides advocacy services for refugee families entering the U.S.

Students Jennifer A. Edwards and Joseph A. (Joe) Horst will direct another 12-member group in hurricane relief and rebuilding work in the devastated community of Long Branch, Miss., under the auspices of the Valley Response Group.

Ten students, led by Paul J. Yoder and Kara L. Bender, will visit and assist organizations addressing poverty and other urban issues in Philadelphia and Camden, N.J. They include Camden House, New Hope for Women Center, Urban Hope and the Lighthouse Family Center Church.

EMU sophomore Ariel C. Ressler, (YPCA) trip commissioner, said the service experiences “benefit both the students and those they relate to.

“It’s a great opportunity to interact with new people and to experience a different way of life,” she said.

Ressler, a major from Lititz, Pa., went with a group to Philadelphia last year and said she came away “with a lot of questions” related to urban problems and how to address them.

In addition to the service teams, the EMU Royals will participate in the annual EMU-Sarasota Spring Classic over the break week. The Royals will compete against Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio; Cedarville (OH) University; Trinity International University, Deerfield, Ill.; and Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa.

EMU President will speak at the 9 a.m. worship service Mar. 5 at Bay Shore Mennonite Church in Sarasota.